Ag Alert is the newspaper of the California Farm Bureau Federation, reaching Farm Bureau agricultural and collegiate members. Agricultural members are owners and decision-makers on California farms and ranches. The California Farm Bureau Federation is a non-governmental, non-profit, voluntary membership organization whose purpose is to protect and promote agricultural interests throughout the state of California and to find solutions to the problems of the farm, the farm home and the rural community. Farm Bureau is California's largest farm organization, comprised of 53 county Farm Bureaus. Farm Bureau strives to protect and improve the ability of farmers and ranchers engaged in production agriculture to provide a reliable supply of food and fiber through responsible stewardship of California's resources.
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Ag Alert returns July 16 Ag Alert ® will be on hiatus. The next issue will publish July 16. In the meantime, check the Ag Alert and California Farm Bureau websites at www.agalert.com and www.cfbf.com and social media channels @cafarmbureau for breaking news.
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www.cfbf.com • www.agalert.com JUNE 18, 2025
The Newspaper for California Agriculture
Field Crops Trees & vines
special reports
By Christine Souza Grappling with higher costs and chal- lenges related to water, labor, regulations and trade, some California farm leaders question whether the nation’s No. 1 agri- culture state has reached a tipping point. California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass discussed the high cost of operating a farm in California during the Agri-Pulse Food & Ag Issues Summit West in Sacramento last week. “When we talk about the things that are keeping me up at night, it really comes down to what is going to keep our mem- bers in business,” Douglass said. Citing the most recent U.S. Census of Agriculture, she noted how the state has lost 20% of its farms during the past decade, with a disproportionate number of them being small and medium in size. This loss, Douglass said, is evidence that agriculture in the Golden State is at a tipping point. The summit, of which California Farm Bureau was a sponsor, brought together farmers, agricultural leaders, state and federal officials, environmentalists and researchers to discuss topics including navigating costs and government regula- tions, and to discuss policy related to trade, pesticides, labor and water. Pointing to the rising regulatory pres- sures facing farmers, Douglass cited a reg- ulatory cost study released early this year by California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The study, commissioned last year by the Monterey County Farm Bureau, found regulatory and compliance costs for Salinas Valley lettuce growers in- creased nearly 1,400% in less than 20 years. Cal Poly professor Lynn Hamilton, who prepared the study, said she found the cost of environmental, labor and food safety compliance was $1,600 per acre, an increase of 63.7% from 2017. Regulatory costs are now 12.6% of total production costs, while farm-gate values for lettuce increased 0.37% from 2017 to 2024, the study found. See SUMMIT, Page 17 Agriculture is at a critical juncture, farm leaders warn
Organic acres slip as state pushes for more San Joaquin County farmer Federico Toledo helps customer Elizabeth Harrington of Sacramento at the Capitol Mall Certified Farmers Market in downtown Sacramento. Harrington says when shopping for produce, she tries to buy organic whenever possible.
By Ching Lee To combat climate change, California aims to expand organic production as part of its strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality. But the push to bolster organic farm- ing practices comes as certified organic acreage nationwide and in California has
trended down in recent years. Farmers cite ongoing challenges that could work against the state’s plan and say markets and economics—not mandates—will ul- timately drive acreage. Assembly Bill 1757—signed into law in 2022—requires the state to convert 10% of its cropland to organic production by 2030, 15% by 2038 and 20% by 2045. Of the state’s 24.2 million acres used
to grow crops and raise livestock in 2022, some 1.8 million acres were certified or- ganic, or about 7.4%. That’s down from a high of nearly 2.2 million acres in 2020, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Farmers point to various reasons for the acreage decline, including falling organic price premiums that have made organic
See ACRES, Page 12
n e w s p a p e r
Comment.......................................2 From the Fields........................4-5 Trees & Vines...........................8-9 Classifieds........................... 21-23 Inside
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Balance needed to protect livestock, pets and people
By Taylor Hagata Growing up on my family’s cattle ranch in northeastern California, the words ranching and conservation didn’t often go hand in hand. But over the years, I’ve come to understand they’re one in the same. For four gener-
deer, antelope or elk tag before you die. I’m not calling for eradication. Ranchers understand balance—we live by it. But what’s happening now isn’t balance. It’s an unsustainable shift, one that’s endan- gering not just cattle and pets but people, livelihoods and rural identity. We need the agricultural communi- ty, our local sheriffs, hunting groups and outdoorsmen to join forces to help bring positive change to our rural areas. We need thoughtful, science-based wildlife management policies that reflect on-the- ground realities. We need support for working lands, and we need voices in the rooms where these decisions are made. We don’t want to look back in five or 10 years, see our rangelands consumed by massive wildfires and realize too late that wolves were the spotted owl of ranching, where regulations—like those protecting the owl—ultimately made it impossible to continue logging, resulting in misman- aged forests and wildfires that destroyed the habitat they were trying to protect for the owls. I encourage everyone to attend your local and state Fish and Wildlife meetings. Call your legislators. Speak up for the people who feed you and care for the land, those who are protecting open spaces every day. We need smart rules and regulations that don’t focus on one group of apex pred- ators, forgetting about all other wildlife. We need to protect property rights and public safety, regulations that let farmers and ranchers continue to do what they do best—creating safe, reliable food for the world while conserving open space for wildlife and future generations. Lassen County rancher Taylor Hagata serves on the board of the California Farm Bureau, representing Lassen, Modoc and Plumas-Sierra counties. He can be reached at media@cfbf.com.
ations, my fam- ily has lived and worked this land. We’ve raised cattle while stewarding wildlife, water and soil. My grandfa- ther may not have used the word con- servation, but he
Taylor Hagata
lived it. He knew, as all successful ranchers do, that the health of the land is tied to our own longevity and success. But today, that balance is being pushed to a breaking point. The pressures from ris- ing apex predator populations—mountain lions, black bears and now gray wolves— are colliding with collapsing deer, antelope and elk numbers. The result is a growing wave of livestock losses, increasing danger to rural residents, and an uncertain future for ranchers and outdoorsmen alike. I’ll never forget the day in the early 1990s when my grandfather and I saw a moun- tain lion running across our ranch road. He was nearly 70 and had spent his life out- doors, and yet he told me it was the first lion he’d ever seen. Fast forward to today, mountain lion encounters are common. I’ve lost two dogs in four years to lions on my own porch and have been losing calves at an increasing rate each year. It’s not just animals being lost. A wom- an in Northern California was killed by a bear. Two brothers searching for deer sheds were attacked—one fatally. Locally, we’ve seen lions on school playgrounds, golf courses and in parking lots. Something has changed.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services trapper George Alfonso examines a deceased calf that was confirmed to have been killed by wolves at a Sierra County ranch this spring.
For years, deer and antelope popula- tions in my area have been in decline— made worse each time rules and regula- tions are put in place that focus on one apex predator. In response, deer have begun living in towns where they’re safer from predators. The predators have fol- lowed them. At the same time, changes in policy, such as the 2013 ban on hunting bears with hounds, have made it harder to manage predator behavior. Bears now live in plac- es they were rarely seen before, including the high-desert mountains of northeastern California. This has created a dynamic in which lions must hunt more often because they are losing kills to bears—kills they normally would feed on for days. In 2011, the first gray wolf returned to California in nearly a century when OR-7 passed through our ranch. Now gray wolves are spreading across Northern California, killing livestock and worsening an already unstable predator-prey dynamic. I understand the emotional pull wolves
have after I saw a gray wolf for the first time in the wild on my ranch. They are large, in- credible animals. But in a landscape where deer herds are struggling, apex predators don’t just compete with one another—they will eat what is available. And unfortunate- ly, more times than not, that’s our cattle. Ranchers in California have few tools to protect their livestock. Predator de- terrents stop working after a short time. Compensation programs don’t replace lost genetics, years of work or the emotional toll. Most importantly, they don’t stop the next kill. These issues aren’t just about ranchers. An overall decline in public safety in rural areas affects anyone who lives in or loves rural California. Parents like my wife and I now think twice before letting our children play outside. Communities built on out- door living and the public that enjoys hunt- ing are watching their way of life change with decreases in hunting tag quotas year after year. This creates a hunting-points system in which you are lucky to draw one
VOL. 52, NO. 13
June 18, 2025
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(4) Kevin Merrill; (5) Kevin Robertson; (6) Roger Everett; (7) Lorna Roush; (8) April England; (9) Jay Mahil; (10) Jan Garrod; (11) Joe Martinez; (12) Steve Kafka; (13) Jake Wenger; (14) Joe Fischer; (15) Clark Becker; (16) Garrett Driver; (17) Johnnie White; (18) Daniel Suenram; (19) Taylor Hagata; (20) Martin Spannaus; (21) Ronald Vevoda; (Young Farmers & Ranchers Committee Chair) Daniel Jones. ADVISORY MEMBERS: Jenny Holtermann, Chair, CFB Rural Health Department; Glenda Humiston, University of California Cooperative Extension. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: Send to agalert@cfbf. com or Ag Alert, Attn: Editor, 2600 River Plaza Drive, Sacramento, CA 95833. Include name, address, phone number, email address; 250-word limit.
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2 Ag Alert June 18, 2025
Mushroom growers criticize U-turn on new organic rules
Growers of white mushrooms, which make up the bulk of mushroom sales in the U.S., use compost substrate, while specialty mushrooms such as shiitakes are grown from substrate made of sawdust and byproducts from crops such as rice, wheat and almonds. “Mushrooms are very absorbent,” Garrone said. “They get their flavor profiles and nutritional elements from the wood and material they grow from.” The new regulations for organic mushrooms imposed more stringent
processes to ensure each component of a mushroom farm’s substrate is produced organically. Garrone and other farmers cautioned that the regulations could be a “heavy lift” for smaller specialty mushroom farms that may lack the economies of scale to purchase large quantities of agricultural byproducts to make their own substrate. But overall, he said, the regulations were needed to give consumers confidence or- ganic mushrooms are truly organic.
By Caleb Hampton Organic mushroom growers and trade groups have criticized a proposed rule announced last month by the U.S. Department of Agriculture that would rescind the National Organic Program’s recently adopted Market Development for Mushrooms and Pet Food regulations. The regulations,
With regard to mushroom and pet food regulations specifically, the group said, “USDA’s proposed rollback would undo over 15 years of stakeholder collaboration.” Commercial mushroom farms typically grow the fungi indoors by introducing spawn, or mycelium, to substrate composed of compost or woody materials.
See MUSHROOMS, Page 6
issued in December, were intended to address inconsisten-
cies in standards used to certify organic mushrooms and pet food, with the goal of instilling greater consumer confidence in the processes used to produce them. “Reversing the recently established framework for organic mushroom and pet food production will undermine the domestic organic market and harm U.S. farmers by hampering market develop- ment and eroding trust in the organic seal,” Rebekah Weber, policy director for California Certified Organic Farmers, said in a June 4 letter to the National Organic Program Standards Division, which is part of USDA. Mushroom growers and organic trade groups say the 2024 regulations were de- veloped through a years-long process that involved close collaboration with farmers and industry stakeholders. “We as an industry decided that’s how we’d like to set it up—the standards that we put in place for ourselves to follow,” said Ian Garrone, CEO of Far West Fungi, an organic specialty mushroom farm in Monterey County that supplies grocery re- tailers such as Safeway and Whole Foods. Farmers and trade groups said USDA’s decision to rescind the new regulations appeared to have been made unilateral- ly. The department did not consult stake- holders, they said, and it bypassed the National Organic Standards Board, which typically votes to approve potential regu- latory actions before recommending them to USDA. Organic trade groups warned that the circumvention of that process could jeop- ardize the confidence consumers have in organic products in general, not just mush- rooms or pet food. “This departure from established pro- tocol threatens to undermine stakeholder trust and the integrity of the organic regu- latory process while also setting a troubling precedent,” the Organic Trade Association said last month in a statement.
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June 18, 2025 Ag Alert 3
From the Fields ®
Sponsored by:
Dick Peixoto Santa Cruz County organic vegetable farmer
Billie Roney Tehama County rancher
We get two crops per year up here. As crops are coming out, we’re preparing the ground for the next planting. We have about 40 different crops, and we have 27 different crews out there harvesting every day. There’s a serious farm labor shortage. Having enough people every day to do the harvesting is a big issue for us. Like when we came in Monday morning, we were short 57 workers because they didn’t show up for work. That happens pretty much every Monday. It’s hard to get all the harvesting done when you’re short 57 people that were going to harvest for eight hours a day. We had a flood last year in this area, and a lot of the diseases that were in limited fields got spread over the whole valley. The water took the diseases from one field to the next. Now we’ve got diseases where we didn’t have them. Some of the ground that we thought was clean is not so clean. We had more root diseases that we haven’t had in the past. So far, we’ve lost probably 50% of our napa cabbage to diseases. Rotation is the only tool we have for organic. We don’t put the same crop back on the contaminated ground. Depending on the crop, we usually give it three to five years of rotation. We also trade ground with strawberry growers. If we have a disease that affects vegetables, they’ll come and plant strawberries on our ranch because the disease we have doesn’t affect their crop, and we’ll plant on their ground because the diseases they have on strawberries don’t affect our vegetables. We work with a lot of the vegetable and berry growers to exchange the ground so we can help clean up each other’s grounds. We’ve been doing this for years. When we became organic and didn’t have the fumigants to control diseases, crop rotation became more important, and rotating vegetables with fruit is an excellent way to get the ground clean.
We’ve sent some of the cattle to the mountains, and we’re going to send the rest of them up next weekend. We’re keeping 100 baby pairs down here and feeding them because they’re too easy prey for the wolves. I don’t want to send those little guys up there to be eaten. We have weaned calves younger and earlier than ever before to try to minimize the damage done by the wolves. The higher prices that we’re looking at this year have made that an OK choice. Before, it didn’t feel very smart because you’d keep them down here and you’d have to feed them because everything’s dried up now. Down here, we have to supplement their feed quite a bit. But the calves bring so much money that we’re not going backwards on them. We had really good feed, but it dried up early—sooner than we thought. We had all that great moisture, but then the heat and the north winds came. The feed that’s out there now is very dry, so we’re supplementing. Hay prices have come down. Of course, our other costs have skyrocketed. We’re not using one allotment in the mountains of Lassen County because it was too far from our home headquarters to be able to watch over the cattle properly. We rebuilt the corrals so we could put the entire herd into those corrals at night to protect them from the wolves. It’s really hard on the cattle when you confine them in a small space like that. There’s no water going through there, and it gets real dusty because they kick everything up. Then you start having problems, especially your calves. If you have a lot of cattle in one space, you are not going to have any grass on the ground. We’ve also used fladry, and it’s really ineffective. I think the wolves are so smart no matter what you do. They figure it out after a while.
Tom Gotelli San Joaquin County cherry grower, packer and shipper
The crop was extremely light, unlike last year, when there was just an overabundance of cherries. Pretty much all the varieties were affected. I think the warm temperatures in December and January affected the trees’ dormancy. Last year’s big crop could also be a factor for the light crop because cherries are somewhat alternate bearing. Fruit quality was good. Typically, when you have a smaller crop, you have bigger fruit. It’s always a challenge to get the cherries picked, but it was a different ball game this year just because there was not a lot of fruit. That’s been a major issue related to farming cherries this year. It seems like there’s always something, but that was a whopper. Labor was plentiful in the orchards and the packing shed. Unfortunately, we were not able to pick several of our ranches. There were just no cherries. For example, we did not pick one cherry in one of the ranches south of the Arvin area. People that do have cherries, people that were able to pick probably had a good year because it’s simple supply and demand. Since we have a smaller crop, we’re charging more. At the farmer’s market, our price went up just because the cost of doing business has gone up tremendously. The cost of everything has gone up, so we have to pass that along. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be in this business. I think people knew because they go, “Oh wow, I’ve heard you had a really bad year.” Our cherries go all over the world, and we exported a decent amount, although the U.S. has been a real- ly good market for us because Americans love cherries. A greater share of our cherries went to the domes- tic market this year. But because of the light crop, no one got what they wanted. Everybody wanted more.
4 Ag Alert June 18, 2025
Insights from farmers and ranchers across the Golden State, including members of the California Farm Bureau.
Raquel Gomez California / Arizona Certified Crop Adviser
SPECIAL TO FROM THE FIELDS
As the BRANDT technical agronomist in California and Arizona, I work closely with my sales team to provide agronomic support, education and create research trials to support and showcase our products. All Certified Crop Advisers will agree every year looks different. I do my best to disseminate the message that balanced crop nutrition is the best tool in a grower’s toolbox. This keeps your crops and your yield potential high. It is no secret that nutrient deficiencies can open the door to unneeded stress for both growers and crops, like bacterial and fungal infections. Balanced crop nutrition becomes particularly important when heat stress comes into the fold and temperatures soar like they do this time of year. For example, many of my trials this time of year focus on specific agronomic challenges like high salinity/sodicity, resistance management, soil-induced micronutrient deficiencies or challenging environmental conditions for foliar absorption. Small changes like low salt index fertilizers, high efficiency delivery systems in foliar fertilizers or the addition of an adjuvant make a big difference in how your crop grows. Being a Certified Crop Adviser helps me color in the bigger picture for customers and collaborators about the recommendations I make. In addition, I work to highlight the benefits of our sustainable crop protection portfolio. Sustainable crop protection does not have to stay exclusively on organic acres. It can be used as a tool to diversify modes of action for resistance management and simplify chemistry rotations in conventional settings. As a crop adviser, I must stay informed on state induced label changes and application windows so crops are not left vulnerable to pests and farmers can continue to make a living. Which leads me to no one person can know it all. I am so thankful to the Certified Crop Adviser network I have built because in agriculture, information and hands-on experience is power.
To contribute to From the Fields, submit your name, county of membership and contact information to agalert@cfbf.com.
Keep what's above our land safe by understanding what's below. Call 811 Before You Dig
June 18, 2025 Ag Alert 5
Mushrooms Continued from Page 3 “Our customers definitely are looking for that kind of transparency,” Garrone said. In its statement opposing the rescis- sion of the regulations, the Organic Trade Association cited data showing sales of U.S.-grown organic mushrooms stagnated in recent years, while imports of Canadian- grown organic mushrooms, which are subject to stricter standards, increased. Farmers and trade groups blamed the lack of demand for U.S.-grown organic mush- rooms on poorly developed regulations. “Current regulations do not address the unique nature of mushroom and pet food production,” Weber said. “This, in turn, erodes trust in the organic seal because consumers expect the organic label to rep- resent a consistent and reliable standard.” Contributing to the need for new reg- ulations, growers said, was an increase during the past decade in substrate for specialty mushrooms imported from China by U.S. producers. For a quarter of what it costs Far West Fungi to produce its own substrate from domestically sourced materials, Garrone said, other farms began importing blocks of premade substrate from China. When it arrives in the U.S., the import- ed substrate is already colonized by my- celium, a process that takes two to three months, with importing producers able
supply all the mushrooms the stores want to sell, including specialty mushrooms. Farms with contracts then source specialty mushrooms from farms that specialize in growing them. “At one point, we were supplying the en- tire industry with shiitake mushrooms,” said Louis Caputo, co-owner of KSS Sales, a Pennsylvania-based specialty mushroom purveyor and distributor that grows con- ventional and organic mushrooms. When imported blocks of substrate became available, he said, it became so easy to produce specialty mushrooms that large mushroom farms cut out the farms that supplied them and began growing their own. “Instead of buying a product from a domestic supplier, they’re basically pro- ducing it much cheaper with all the same labeling,” Caputo said. “We started losing shiitake sales.” He said he was not familiar with USDA’s proposal to rescind the new organic reg- ulations, but added “any hurdle that can make it harder for importers is good for us.” USDA did not respond to questions from Ag Alert ® about its proposed rescis- sion of the National Organic Program’s Market Development for Mushrooms and Pet Food. Caleb Hampton is assistant editor of Ag Alert. He can be reached at champton@cfbf.com.
Workers at Far West Fungi in Monterey County place substrate made from sawdust and agricultural byproducts into bags. Growers say imports of premade substrate blocks have “undermined” farms.
to harvest mushrooms from the substrate within a week or two. These mushrooms are still labeled as organic, growers said, even if components of the substrate were not carefully inspected. “As an industry, we were like, hey, we need to have some distinction” between mushrooms grown from imported sub-
strate versus domestically produced sub- strate, Garrone said. “The restrictions were very loose, and it basically undermined the U.S. grower,” he added. Because white mushrooms dominate U.S. sales, farms that grow them typical- ly win contracts from major retailers to
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6 Ag Alert June 18, 2025
Tariff impacts weigh on hay exports, dim market outlook
challenges,” the agricultural lender said. Most hay exports are compacted and bound into smaller bales for shipment. To meet rising demand from China—which accounted for 30% of total U.S. forage exports last year—hay exporters have in- creased production of compressed hay during the past decade. But tariffs now threaten this trade, Farm Credit said. Before the U.S. and China called a 90-day truce last month, Trump imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese imports, and China re- sponded with 125% tariffs on American
goods. That effectively halted all hay ship- ments to China, said Gerard Irungaray, an owner of Imperial County-based Triple I Press, which exports hay. “Their end user can only pay so much,” he said. When tariffs are imposed, exporters oftentimes would be forced to lower their price to make it more palatable for buyers, but at 125%, “we can’t drop our price that much,” Irungaray said. With the 90-day pause, the U.S. has
By Ching Lee Hay producers have already faced fall- ing prices for the forage in recent years, and impacts of President Trump’s tariff policies add new pressures and market disruptions that could further dampen the sector’s outlook. Hay supplies have rebounded from
levels during the drought, contributing to lower prices. Though strong domestic de- mand has kept California hay prices steady so far this year, export activity has been limited, according to a report last month by AgWest Farm Credit. “If tariffs continue to disrupt trade, Western exporters could face significant
See HAY, Page 16
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June 18, 2025 Ag Alert 7
A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® CALIFORNIA Trees & Vines
Trials focus on 30 almond varieties for performance By Vicky Boyd At a field day in Modesto, University of California Cooperative Extension pomology adviser emeritus Roger Duncan walks attendees through 30 almond varieties involved in the fourth-generation Stanislaus County regional variety trial. The event featured almond kernel samples, inset, of some of the varieties involved in the trials.
rootstock commonly used in the area. At Chico, for example, trees are on Krymsk 86, which is known for its strong anchorage to keep trees from being blown over in high winds. The Modesto and Bakersfield trials are on high-vigor Hansen 536 rootstock. As it has for nearly 50 years, UCCE manages the experiments, with the almond board providing funding. Each trial is farmed by the producer hosting it. Since Duncan joined UCCE more than three decades ago, he said he’s noticed a shift toward self-fertile varieties in the trials and in commercial orchards—and he understands the attraction. “With self-fertile varieties, they tend to be more consistent,” Duncan said. “Of course, you don’t need as many bees. They just produce a more consistent yield in years when the bees don’t want to fly.” Of the 30 current trial entries, about three-fourths are self-fertile. Also included are Nonpareil, a self-incompatible variety considered the industry gold standard for nut quality, along with pollinizers Butte, Padre, Aldrich and Bennett-Hickman. As part of the trial, UC has nine experimental selections from university almond and stone fruit breeder Tom Gradziel. Unlike private breeding programs that are pressed to see a return on investment, he said the university is able to examine longer-term issues. One is self-fertility. Currently, the three commercial self-fertile varieties were bred using the naturally self-fertile cultivar Tuono from Europe. But heavy reliance on this See ALMONDS, Page 9
Borrowing a page from school classrooms, the University of California held three show- and-tell sessions last month to share its latest regional almond variety trials with the industry. Comprising 30 named varieties and numbered experimental selections from public and private breeding programs, the trials test tree performance under commercial farming conditions. UC experts will evaluate each variety annually for yield, bloom, harvest timing and possible pest issues. They and the Almond Board of California also will rate kernels for size, shape, color, flavor and other traits coveted by processors. Even if a variety has a reasonably good showing in the trials, Roger Duncan, UC Cooperative Extension pomology adviser emeritus in Stanislaus County, recommended growers approach it cautiously. “We never know unless something’s been out there for 20 years how it’s going to do,” he said. Bennett-Hickman is a good example. The pollinizer variety initially looked promising but in recent years has been plagued by what some call environmental leafing failure. Duarte Nursery, which marketed Bennett-Hickman, has since pulled back on promoting it. Planted in September 2022 and early 2023, the trials are the fourth generation of regional almond variety evaluations the UC has undertaken. In addition to Modesto, the UC has one in Bakersfield and one at the California State University, Chico, farm. While all the trials contain the same 30 varieties, trees at each site are grafted onto a
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Almonds Continued from Page 8
after this year’s harvest, Duncan said. They are in Chico, Salida and Chowchilla. Based on cumulative results from the older trials, he said one of the take-home messages was Nonpareil remains the king with both kernel quality and yields. From 2016-2023, Nonpareil topped all varieties with an average total of 20,636 pounds across the three sites. Vicky Boyd is a reporter in Modesto. She can be reached at agalert@cfbf.com.
single variety could prove troublesome, as it increases the overall risk of pest and disease problems due to the lack of ge- netic diversity. “We’re bringing in a lot of genetic di- versity and making it available to people and private programs so we have more options,” Gradziel said. Tom Burchell, owner of Burchell Nursery in Oakdale, has five entries in the trial and said the resulting performance data is critical for growers. “I like to see them compared to all of the other varieties, and I like that it’s an unbi- ased rating system from the university,” he said. “It’s not me saying plant Shasta. If it’s proven itself out here and Roger Duncan and the almond board get behind the va- riety, it’s a third party saying it.” Wes Asai, a pest control adviser and crop consultant from Turlock, attended the Modesto trial to view the three commer- cial self-fertilize varieties—Independence, Shasta and Yorizane—in one location, al- lowing him to compare them more easily. “I just wanted to see them in a single set- ting, how they look side by side,” he said. “I’ve seen all of these varieties alone. Yorizane has shown a lot of promise, but it’s still a little bit new, so growers are still figuring it out.” Nursery producer John Duarte, whose family is hosting the trial at their Dewitt Ranch east of Modesto, said they volun- teered because it gives them first-hand expe- rience with new and pending releases. The family also grows almonds and winegrapes. “It’s just a huge value to us,” said Duarte, president of Duarte Nursery in Hughson. “I have my shadow on this place almost daily. We get familiar with the new varieties and get to know them more than anyone else.” The trial consists of four replicates of 15 trees of each variety or selection planted down the rows. The remainder of the 64- acre block is Yorizane grafted onto Bright’s Hybrid 5 rootstock, a combination that ex- cites Duarte. “Yorizane in the yield trials is not a big tree,” Duarte said. “But at higher density, you’re getting the sunlight capture up. Put it on a high-efficiency rootstock, and we can look at what we’re wanting with or- chard returns.” A self-fertile almond from retired U.S. Department of Agriculture breeder Craig Ledbetter’s program, Yorizane is the first va- riety released from the UC regional variety trials. Those who have evaluated the variety say it has excellent kernel quality and high yield potential with few insect or disease problems. Although Yorizane is a smaller tree, it has shown to be one of the most effi- cient at converting sunlight into almonds. Duarte said the variety also has a unique butterfly-shaped hull that allows it to hang on the tree and dry down to 6% kernel moisture. This would allow for off-ground harvesting, which could reduce equip- ment passes and dust. At that moisture level, the kernels wouldn’t require further drying before hulling, either. UC’s third-generation variety trials are just wrapping up after 11 years in the ground and are expected to be removed
At the almond variety field day in Modesto, Duarte Nursery promotes self- fertile Yorizane tall trees, which are grafted a bit higher than other trees to allow for off-ground harvesting equipment.
June 18, 2025 Ag Alert 9
CALIFORNIA
Field Crops A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
Sake brewers look to the Sacramento Valley for rice By Caleb Hampton Colusa County rice farmer Carissa Lee procures rice from Sacramento Valley growers for Sun Valley Rice Co. Since 2011, Valley Select, a sister company of Sun Valley, has milled rice so that it can be used by brewers of sake, a Japanese rice wine. During the past decade, California rice sales to sake makers increased as the beverage’s popularity rose among U.S. consumers.
Most of the rice grown in California is a medium-grain variety called Calrose. The Sacramento Valley—the state’s predominant rice-producing region—is home to about 500,000 acres of the cereal grain each year. Valley Select, a sister company of Sun Valley, also produces a sake rice variety called Yamada Nishiki. The company exclusively sourced a small amount of seed from Japan and spent years building its supply before being able to grow the special variety on a commercial scale. “The king of sake rice,” as O’Donnell calls Yamada Nishiki, is hard to grow, and the plant grows more than twice as tall as Calrose, making it more difficult to machine harvest. When Sun Valley opened in 2000, “it was really the beginning of the sushi boom,” O’Donnell said, with high demand for Calrose from restaurants in Asia, Europe and America. In 2011, Valley Select took note of the demand for rice from sake makers and began milling rice for sake. Since then, the company’s sake milling operation has steadily grown. The mill plays an important role in determining the quality of the beverage. That’s be- cause sake is categorized by the level of polish on the rice kernels used to make it. Premium sake is typically made from highly polished rice, the kernels whittled down to about half their original size to get rid of the outer layers of fats, minerals and proteins that can create overbearing flavors and aromas. The starchy center that’s left is called the shinpaku, or “white heart.”
Farmers in the Sacramento Valley have cultivated rice for more than a century. The cli- mate and soil in the valley, which lies at the same latitude as Japan’s rice-growing region, are ideal for growing short- and medium-grain japonica rice, also called sticky rice. For the past few decades, much of the Golden State’s crop has been exported to Asia and Europe, primarily for sushi. But lately, a small but growing share of California’s rice has been sold to producers of sake, a Japanese rice wine that dates to the third century. The beverage has been among the fastest-growing alcohol categories in the U.S. in recent years, making a leap during the pandemic when people bought it to go with their takeout sushi. Several large Japanese-headquartered sake makers have brewing and distribution facilities in California, and earlier this year, Smithsonian Magazine called the emerging craft sake brewing scene in the U.S. “a movement.” “The demand continues to grow,” said Erin O’Donnell, former vice president of sales at Sun Valley Rice Co., which operates a rice mill in the Colusa County town of Arbuckle. Carissa Lee, a third-generation rice farmer in Colusa County, grows around 1,000 acres of rice and works as a procurer for Sun Valley, sourcing rice from nearly 200 family farms in the Sacramento Valley. About two weeks before harvest, Lee and other farmers pull the water off the crop to dry it out and mature the kernels before cutting the rice with a harvester. In the winter, rice farmers typically flood their fields to provide wetland habitat for waterfowl migrating along the Pacific Flyway.
See SAKE, Page 11
10 Ag Alert June 18, 2025
Yoshihiro Sako, owner and head brewer of Den Sake Brewery in Oakland, uses California-grown sake rice to make the Japanese wine.
Sake Continued from Page 10
converted into alcohol. The mash stays in the temperature-con- trolled tank for up to a month before it is pressed, filtered and pasteurized. Most sake is then aged for around six months. “If you do it right, the sake becomes aro- matic, light, elegant and complex,” with an alcohol volume usually between 13% and 18%, Sako said. Sako always uses rice from a single ori- gin, printing the farm’s name on the bottle, so that he can replicate the formula. Since opening Den Sake Brewery in 2017, he has twice been named a semifinalist for a pres- tigious James Beard Award. The demand for California-grown sake rice is driven by large Japanese- headquartered companies with distrib- utors in the U.S. But craft breweries such as Den Sake also play an important role, O’Donnell said. “The craft breweries are really elevating sake to the consumer,” she said. “When consumers see a sake craft brewery in their neighborhood, they might go in and try it for the first time.” Caleb Hampton is assistant editor of Ag Alert. This story first appeared in the Fall 2024 issue of California Bountiful® magazine. He can be reached at champton@cfbf.com.
“Sake rice is something special,” O’Donnell said. Milling a truckload of rice down to the pearly shinpaku takes the mill around three weeks, much longer than the stan- dard milling done for sushi rice. Yoshihiro Sako, owner and head brewer of Den Sake Brewery in Oakland, has been making sake for eight years. He learned the nuances of sake during years as a sake buyer and sommelier in San Francisco restaurants and as an apprentice at sake breweries in Japan. As a brewer, Sako has opted for more traditional methods that use a larger part of the rice kernel. “In ancient times, there were no ma- chines to mill, so they used minimally polished rice when they made sake,” he said. Mastering that method, he said, has helped him “create a modern flavor.” Aside from rice, sake has three ingredi- ents: water, yeast and koji, a special mold produced by only a handful of suppliers in Japan. When preparing a batch of sake, Sako steams the rice, spreads it out on a large table and mixes in the mold and yeast. The koji breaks down the starch into sugar, which is then fermented by the yeast and
A glass of sake is displayed at Den Sake Brewery in Oakland, which uses sake rice grown in California to make the Japanese wine.
June 18, 2025 Ag Alert 11
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farming rather than rely on hand tools. “That will save us a lot of time and labor, and we’ll be able to hire people for more of a short-term thing,” Walker said. Fresno County farmer Todd Hirasuna, who grows organic and conventional pro- cessing tomatoes for Morning Star, said he thinks demand for organic products is closely tied to the economy. While he understands the merits of organic farm- ing, he said he has not seen “consis- tent-enough demand to grow it exponen- tially in a short amount of time and be able to sustain that growth.” “You can create whatever mandate or law that you want, but there’s got to be suf- ficient outlets at a premium that justifies the production,” Hirasuna said. Transitioning to organic is “not an over- night success story,” he said, as it takes time, “and you’ve got to change the way you do things.” With processing tomatoes, there are some insect-borne diseases that are very tough to fight organically. On the west side of Fresno County, for example, perennial vine weed has been hard to con- trol even conventionally, he said, and there are few herbicides that work well on it. For Kings County farmer Ted Sheely, Fusarium wilt race 4, a fungal disease, is the main reason he’s not growing organic cotton anymore. He tried for five years and had buyers willing to up the premium for organic cotton. But he was losing 30% to 50% of his crop to the soil-borne pathogen, and even with the higher price, “I couldn’t make enough yield to pay the bills,” he said. There are resistant varieties, Sheely not- ed, but they are genetically modified, and the national organic rules do not allow the use of GMO varieties. With organic cotton acreage so small, he said, few companies are willing to invest time and money to breed resistant varieties through conven- tional methods. Unless the organic rules change to allow GMOs and gene-edited plants, Sheely said certain plant diseases make organic production untenable. Ching Lee is editor of Ag Alert. She can be reached at clee@cfbf.com.
farming less attractive. The three-year transition and the extra cost and paper- work to become certified organic has long been a barrier for some small farms. In addition, some farmers have increasingly turned to other “green” labels such as re- generative and sustainable to market their products, and land managed under these alternative programs doesn’t count toward the state targets. To increase organic acreage, Yolo County farmer Jim Durst said the state should try to improve the farmer’s bottom line. While a farmer’s belief in organic farming practices can help move the needle, he said, “what drives it more is profit margin.” With the cost of doing business in California con- tinuing to rise and inflation chipping away at farm earnings, Durst said the higher pric- es farmers earn for using organic practices have not been as lucrative in recent years. “If growers feel like they can get a fair price for the extra expense, they’ll do it, regardless of their conviction” in organic farming, Durst added. “Their conviction is: I need to make money at it.” Merced County farmer Scott Magneson, who no longer farms organically, can re- late. He transitioned his dairy because the higher price for organic milk allowed his operation to stay smaller, around 500 cows. But to meet the national organic standards, which require cows to get 30% of their dry matter intake from grazing, he had to con- vert most of his ground to pasture, includ- ing land used to grow feed. That meant having to buy more feed. When organic milk prices were strong, Magneson said the extra cost penciled out. But as the market tumbled, running an or- ganic dairy got “more and more expensive.” “I’m really disenfranchised with the whole organic thing,” he said. “I’m still trying to dig out of the hole we got into.” After selling his cows, Magneson also dropped the organic certification on his
Yolo County farmer Eric Walker of Farmboy Organics sprays water on his vegetables at the Davis Farmers Market in downtown Davis.
ground, as there were limited market out- lets for organic feed in his area after other organic dairies also closed their doors. The price for organic feed has been so low the past few years that “it hasn’t been worth- while” growing it, he said. Though his Sonoma County dairy has been organic for years, Domenic Carinalli said he has no plans to transition his vineyard to organic. Maintaining organic pasture for his cows is one thing, he said, but “it would be pretty hard” to grow wine- grapes organically. With the surge in organic milk prices in recent months, Carinalli said he has some room on his pasture to milk a few more cows, but he can’t increase organic acreage. “I think all the land here that is viable for organic has been done,” he said. “They’re already certified organic, even the guys that raised hay.” Ryan Galt, University of California, Davis, professor and director of the Agricultural Sustainability Institute, is leading a four- year research project that explores strate- gies for expanding organic practices state- wide. He acknowledged the economics of organic “haven’t been playing out in (farm- ers’) favor,” especially for certain crops that
have seen lingering low prices. “If the state really does want to expand organic acreage, we’re going to have to ex- pand organic markets,” Galt said. The state can help by broadening pro- curement strategies, he said. In addition to boosting farm-to-school purchases, it could buy from farms for other state-run institutions. Think organic produce for hospitals and prisons. To address cost barriers, Galt said other countries have allowed producer cooper- atives to become certified. The cooperative would then enforce organic compliance among its members. Having signed a new lease this spring on 40 acres, Solano County farmer Eric Walker said he and his brother will be expanding their organic fruit and vegetable produc- tion. They currently farm about 12 acres and “were just bursting at the seams” as local demand for their produce grew. He said labor has been the “main con- cern” for increasing their acreage, consid- ering the labor-intensive crops they grow. Walker said he thinks availability and cost of labor remain the key reason organic farm- land has shrunk. Now that they have more land, he said they can do more tractor-based
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